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Hi,
I am slowly building up my stereo system to include a HT setup. My last piece of the jigsaw would be the purchase of subwoofer(s).1) What is the best way of including the subwoofers in the system so that both under HT and normal stereo mode , the quality is not compromised. I note these days that subwoofers only come with line level single ended inputs. This may be a problem as in my stereo system , I am using balanced connections throughout.
Thanks for your help.
Follow Ups:
I think I saw you are in the UK? If so you should definitely check out the UK sub maker "REL". They make very musical subs that have both high and low level hookups that you can use at the same time. They recommend the high level hookup that is made in parallel with your amp with the supplied "neutrik" connector. This is my preferred non HT mode of listening. You can also hookup the low level connection that will only become active if you are doing 5.1 etc.Very good sound and very flexible.
-CB
I'm doing a similar system integration and have decided to use a pair of 2Wq Vandersteen subwoofers. You can get them with balanced or unbalanced passive crossovers. But the feture I think will make them the most flexable is the adjustable Q. I believe I will be able to integrate and tune these subwoofers well in both systems.
I use an active crossover in a similar set-up recommended by bstan. My active crossover outputs are all balanced but can be used unbalanced. As long as your equipment allows operation in either mode you should be fine. Just get an XLR to RCA unbalanced cord. Verify how the pins are wired as a safety check and you will be fine.
My suggestion would be to get an active xover (something like a Marchand XM9-L).Use this xover in your current stereo system between the L&R preamp outputs and the L&R amp inputs.
When you add an HT processor, all you need to do is feed the L&R processor outputs to a spare L&R input on your stereo preamp. This means the HT processor can be turned off when listening to CD or TT inputs from the stereo preamp.
Then on the HT processor speaker setup, you set L&R main speakers to Large, SUB=NO, and don't use the sub-out jack on the HT processor.
This setup allows you to set surrounds and center to small with an appropriate crossover frequency for those speakers in the HT processor.
The active crossover allows you to optimize for the best crossover frequency between your sub, mains and the room thuis providing the best bass response possible.
Thanks Bstan, your method seems to be the best way to keep these two modes of listening/viewing separate. Only problem is , I am in the UK, do you know of dealers in the US who would be able to supply the crossovers?
like this one from Hsu . It has a 2nd order high pass, and you could select 2 crossover freq. Make sure you don't get one of those high pass crossovers that has the infinitely adjustable crossover freq. They are implemented with a inferior sounding circuit design, or are implemented with a high precision and expensive multi-ganged pot.
Frankly, I think it's a pretty bad idea to try and match a 2nd order high-pass crossover filter to the 2nd order rolloff of you main speakers (if they are truly 2nd order rolloff which is mostly only true for acoustic suspension) and then try to match that mess with the internal low-pass crossover of the sub.For smoothly blending bass frequencies between mains and sub(s), I prefer something like a symmetrical Linkwitz-Riley (zero degree phase offset) crossover with a rather steep 24dB/octave slope.
This equalizes signal amplitude at the crossover frequency, and IMO makes it easier to pick a correct crossover frequency for a specific set of mains and sub(s).
Here is Marchand's website
Unless you are some tube preamp die-hard.Many of the better preamp-processor have digital/analog sections on par with very good CD players, plus, they could do bass management in the digital domain for HT/LFE and music modes. Plus some controls the volume in the digital domain, putting as much circuitry in the signal path as a fixed output CD player.
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